Friday, October 26, 2007

Envelope Book

For those of you who asked for directions to the envelope book - here is everything you need to know!

Here are two books I've made - the top one you can see is being well-used for keeping all of my receipts. It would also work great for coupons and one friend even suggested using to collect different kinds of seeds for planting the next year!

Since I don't have all of the supplies handy to make one and create a tutorial - I am just going to show a couple of pictures and provide a link that will help. I saw this idea in a Christmas edition of Martha Stewart Living a few years ago and these are the same pictures that I learned to do it from.

For the books I made - I used scraps of mat board cut to the desired size. You can use any envelopes you want and make this any size you want - the sky is the limit! I did have a hard time finding book binding tape as the article suggests and ended up finding Tyvek tape at an art supply store (which was not cheap). Perhaps a library could help in acquiring a small amount of book binding tape? I do still have quite a bit of tape and would be happy to share to anyone who is interested, as long as it lasts!

First, create the cover. Cut two pieces of mat board (or heavy duty cardboard) a little larger than the size of the envelopes you are using. Tape together to create a "book". Now you can cover with the desired fabric - I just folded the edges over and glued with hot glue.

Next, bind the envelopes together (make sure they are all going the same way!) using the tape to create a booklet of envelopes. Tape the envelopes inside the book front and back covers. You may have to make a slit at the top and bottom edge so that the fabric lays underneath it.

I cut a small slit in the fabric of each edge to glue in a piece of twine to create the tie. A velum tag was glued on the front for labeling.

Is that clear as mud? I hope I have not made this sound complicated - it is not! Have fun creating!

10 comments:

Katy said...

That is so cute!!! I love it! Thanks so much for sharing! :)

Wendi said...

I can't wait to try this. What a great way to get organized! Thank you!

Tamara said...

Thank you so much for sharing this, Monica! When I saw you mention it in the giveaway post, I thought it might work well for a cash envelope system. I'm looking forward to trying it out!

Anonymous said...

Too cute! And what a great way to keep those receipts organized. They tend to float around randomly in my purse and then fall out at the most inconvenient times! LOL This will help. Thanks for sharing!
God bless :)

Susan said...

I really like this idea. I am not crafty, but this really caught my attention. Will try it out.

Stephanie said...

That is so cute! I'm going to have to try that.

For those interested, you can find book binding tape on line at several scrapbook shops:

Scrapbook.com - white booking tape
Or go to Two Peas in a Bucket and search for gaffer's tape.

Hope that helps!

Anonymous said...

I could use something like that. It looks like it would fit right in my purse, or at least in my car. Great idea, I am going to try to make that. You always have such clever ideas. Thanks.

Montserrat said...

What a great little organizing book! Thanks for the instructions.

Liisa said...

Thanks for sharing this! Like Tamara I thought it would work well for cash envelopes. I have been thinking of trying this system and now I have the perfect way to do it!

Blessings,
Liisa

Anonymous said...

Very cute! I was just thinking the other day that I needed to do something about the mess of receipts I have (just in a desk drawer right now!). I'll have to make one! :)

By the way, a hint from a faithful (librarian) reader...there are a number of library supply sites where you can order stuff like book binding tape (and you don't have to be a librarian!). :) Demco and Highsmith are a couple of examples.